Any advice?

[Beardiesforlife333]

Since i'm going to be getting a bearded dragon in eight days I was wondering if you guys have any advice? I don't just mean care advice since i've been doing research for almost a month, I also mean advice you just learn from owning one for a while. This seems like a very helpful website from the stuff i've seen and read! Thank you for any helpful replies!

 

[VenusAndSaturn]

First thing i can say is order off amazon or online for bugs because in stores its going to cost way to much to keep a 1-4 month old beardie full since they eat 3 times a day with 10-20 bugs each feeding so thats quite a lot, up to 30-60+ bugs a day.

Second thing i will say is make sure you replace your uvb tube every 6 months unless you have a solarmeter which checks when they need to be replaced. They say they can go up to 12 months but its safer to replace at 6 months.

Third thing i can say is dont be worried if at a young age he or she doesnt like greens, still offer them but just dont be too worried.

Fourth thing i can say is stay away from four food items, being kale, spinach, mealworms and superworms. Now you can offer mealworms and superworms as a treat once or twice a week but they arent the best. Though if you do offer them make sure you only give 2-4 superworms, and maybe 5-10 mealworms. Mealworms are better than superworms because i believe they dont have such a high fat content but still should be used as treats along side their staple diet of crickets, silkworms, calciworms and roaches.

The final thing i have to say is dont be worried if it doesnt eat for a few days when you first get it, but if it doesn't eat within a week or so take it to a reptile specialist vet (not an exotics vet).


Also do you mind going over your setup? Just in case anything needs to be corrected which i doubt if you've done good research but its still a good thing to have others know just in case.

 

[Beardiesforlife333]

My UVB light is the Reptisun 5.0 T5 HO Tube bulb, but i'm thinking about going to a 10.0 as soon as possible (My mother tends to be a little cheap when it comes to money and the hood a bought comes with a free lamp.) I'm going to mess around with the basking bulbs before I get the bearded dragon, but I've heard that reptile bulbs are pretty much just rebranded halogen bulbs. I'm not a hundred percent sure what Watt i'd need though. I have an 100 watt one on my crickets that tends to get pretty hot if I have it on all the way. I've ordered the stuff but it isn't physically here yet. The setup I have planned also puts him close to the basking bulb and UVB lamp if he's in the basking spot.

 

[CaramelBeet]

My UVB light is the Reptisun 5.0 T5 HO Tube bulb, but i'm thinking about going to a 10.0 as soon as possible (My mother tends to be a little cheap when it comes to money and the hood a bought comes with a free lamp.) I'm going to mess around with the basking bulbs before I get the bearded dragon, but I've heard that reptile bulbs are pretty much just rebranded halogen bulbs. I'm not a hundred percent sure what Watt i'd need though. I have an 100 watt one on my crickets that tends to get pretty hot if I have it on all the way. I've ordered the stuff but it isn't physically here yet. The setup I have planned also puts him close to the basking bulb and UVB lamp if he's in the basking spot.

Definitely get the 10.0 as soon as possible. You'll have to play around with wattages to get it right; do you have a thermometer to measure them with? You'll want either two with probes (one for the cool side and one for the basking spot) or an infrared temperature gun, so you can accurately measure the temperature (stick on thermometers aren't accurate enough, unfortunately).

 

[Beardiesforlife333]

Yeah, I have an infrared one coming in along with the lights. I'm hoping that having the dragon close to the UVB light it will help make up for the weaker UVB rays, i'll definitely will be changing it.